GOD SONGS, PART 2: FAINTING
Psalm 77 (NASB)
David Bruce Linn,
Pastor-Teacher
26 November 2006
All Rights Reserved
I have a vivid memory as a boy of my cousin's infant baptism service on Long Island, New York. The service was in the back of a small Roman Catholic church. The baptismal font was nestled in a corner with some file cabinets. The extended family with grandparents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, and cousins jammed ourselves around the font in the corner like sardines.
The priest's words were hypnotic. The day had started out quite cool, so my mom had laid out a full array of clothes for me to wear. Covering my little body was an undershirt, dress shirt, sweater vest, and blazer, topped off with a necktie. As it turned out, the sun had come out and the temperature had shot up like a skyrocket. The front of the church where the baptismal font was located faced the sun, and as my baby cousin was being baptized we all began to swelter.
This was a formal occasion. I stood as stiff as a sentry with my hands folded in front of me. It did not take very long before my vision began to go black around the edges. Not being familiar with this experience, I assumed that I could just tough it out and that everyone else must have been experiencing the same thing. My field of vision scoped downward until it went completely black. I missed the prayer at the end of the service entirely, and returned to consciousness as my head bounced off a handle on a file cabinet drawer. My guess is that I had passed out and because we were standing so tightly packed I did not fall down until everyone began to file out. I never did find out who I had been leaning against.
Fainting is like that. You are going along in life just doing what you normally do, you begin to feel funny, and pretty soon you are passed out on the floor wondering how you got there. This was one of two occasions when I have tried in vain to overcome a faint by sheer will power. It is simply a matter of physiology that in a faint the brain is being deprived of oxygen for one of a variety of reasons, and if you do not remedy the reason you are going to ground no matter how tough you are.
Psalm 77 describes a man going through the spiritual version of fainting in his personal life. The psalm does not say that the man had been sinning deliberately. He had not turned away from God at all. He was doing all the usual things to strengthen himself in the Lord. Yet he found his spiritual strength sapped and his hope drained out. The future, instead of seeming bright in the Lord, became cloudy.
Have you ever experienced this? I certainly have. Because it appears so often in the Bible I take it as normal that there will be times when we feel like we cannot go on. It may seem that God is not at that moment helping us. This is a great temptation point. If we follow our experience as so many Christians do today we may fall into sin or even walk away from God. Psalm 77 will show us the pathway out of that experience. I am greatly encouraged to see that the psalmist does not merely follow a spiritual formula and pretend to be totally fixed. This particular God song shows a believer getting onto the path which will lead him out of his spiritual faint, but it ends before he is fully out. That sounds like real life to me.
1. A CASE STUDY IN SPIRITUAL FAINTING
The psalm begins with a summary of what the psalmist is going to do about his problem and then lets us know that it is not going well at all: "My voice rises to God, and I will cry aloud; /My voice rises to God, and He will hear me. /In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; /In the night my hand was stretched out without weariness; /My soul refused to be comforted" (Psalm 77:1-2). He did just the right thing we should all do when we are feeling distressed, and he discovered that it did not help, as he goes on to say: "When I remember God, then I am disturbed; /When I sigh, then my spirit grows faint. Selah. /You have held my eyelids open; /I am so troubled that I cannot speak" (Psalm 77:3-4).
Now we see the depth of this problem. We are not told what was going on in Israel at that time, but we are allowed to see it reflected in the life of one believer. He ended up faint yet unable to rest. His eyes were held open as if by toothpicks so that he was unable to drop into a restoring slumber. And this man of the word who actually wrote psalms found himself unable to speak. My wife knows that for me to be speechless is a sign that I am feeling terrible. Normally I talk my way through everything, and when the "word guy" falls silent it is a truly bad sign!
The psalmist had already done the thing which usually did the trick for him: "I have considered the days of old, /The years of long ago. /I will remember my song in the night; /I will meditate with my heart, /And my spirit ponders..." (Psalm 77:5-6). It is almost as if he is responding to someone's objection: "Well, have you taken stock of the great things of God? Have your reviewed your understanding of his glorious nature and deeds?" His response: "Yeah, I did that already." Here's how it came out: "Will the Lord reject forever? /And will He never be favorable again? /Has His lovingkindness ceased forever? /Has His promise come to an end forever? /Has God forgotten to be gracious, /Or has He in anger withdrawn His compassion? Selah. Then I said, 'It is my grief, /That the right hand of the Most High has changed'" (Psalm 77:7-10). This last verse is difficult in the Hebrew and reads differently in some of our translations, such as the New King James Version: "And I said, 'This is my anguish; /But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.'" The verse either concludes the previous thought or begins the next one, but it does not change the basic idea of spiritual fainting.
We must not think ill of this psalmist of old for expressing what seems like modern existential angst. It is not sin to formulate and even write down doubts and fears. There can be a benefit to hearing them out loud in our prayers or seeing them written down in our spiritual journal if for nothing more than to see how false they are! The very idea that the Lord would reject forever those upon whom he has set his love and favor is, on the face of it, absurd, but the spiritual experience of sliding into a faint is no joke. You cannot just tough it out by gathering your will power any more than you can stop a physical faint when your brain is not getting enough oxygen. Berating yourself as if fainting should never happen to you is not helpful. Even the Lord Jesus, in the middle of the anguish of his suffering on the cross, cried out: "'ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?' which is translated, 'MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?'" (Mark 15:34).
2. THE PATH OUT OF A SPIRITUAL FAINT
This is the point in the sermon where we are all hoping that the psalmist is going to tell us how we can cure ourselves of this problem: "Take two Scripture pills and call me in the morning." If the psalmist had caused the problem by sinning and we had done the same we would all have a better chance of a quick cure. But this is not the case. The psalmist confesses no great failing of which to repent. He was merely living the life of faith when this darkness came upon him. The simple fact is that following the Lord sometimes leads us into circumstances which drain us out. The Lord Jesus was doing precisely the will of God when he cried out in anguish on the cross.
So the psalmist returns to a vital act of faith which he had already been pursuing: "I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; /Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. /I will meditate on all Your work /And muse on Your deeds" (Psalm 77:11-12). On the one hand, we might be inclined to think that the psalmist is a man with a one string guitar. When he gets stuck, he just keeps playing that one string. On the other hand, some things are so basic that you cannot get around them. There can be no revival of faith and strength without remembering and meditating on the character and deeds of the Lord.
An old divine named Miguel Molinos wrote a book called Spiritual Guide which influenced A. B. Simpson strongly. It deals with this very question. When you and I are doing the things which comprise a strong devotional life, when we are walking with the Lord and the darkness falls anyway, what do we do then? Molinos says to keep doing what you are doing. Keep studying the word of God, praying, singing worship songs, remembering God's great deeds, and meditating on his character. There is no path out of a spiritual faint without these things. The devil will say: "Look how badly your walk with God is going! I told you it was a fake! You should grab some fleshly satisfaction by sinning."
No, there is no plan "B." The reality of God as revealed in history is the irreplaceable basis of faith. It is rational, logical, and sensible. We begin by reviewing the course of redemptive history as recorded in the Bible. This may seem remote to us, but it gives a sense of the sweep of God's majestic working on the earth. We must see that he has shaped all of history to bring redemption to mankind, how tenderly he has done it, and at what cost.
Then it is well to move on to the history of the church. This is a closer subject, and gets even closer when we remember the history of our denomination and even our own local church. We are part of a work of God, not merely a movement of religious people. And then it is vital to remember our personal histories with God. If we are believers then we have a personal story of God's working in our lives. It is well to tell these stories to others and to write them down in a journal so we do not forget them.
We have not come to the place of being drained out by accident. There is no strengthening of faith without regular trips to the place of fainting. Our job is to embrace the good God wants to bring out of the time of weakness, to keep doing the deeds of faithfulness no matter how we feel, and keep looking for the Lord to lift us up.
3. DOING THE DEEDS OF REFRESHMENT
So the psalmist goes on to show us what he is doing to refresh himself in the Lord and pull out of his spiritual faint: "Your way, O God, is holy; /What god is great like our God? /You are the God who works wonders; /You have made known Your strength among the peoples. /You have by Your power redeemed Your people, /The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah" (Psalm 77:13-15).
He begins with God's character, that he is holy, great, wonder-working, and strong. This is in strong contrast to all false gods who are by nature unholy, minor, full of false wonders, and weak. This is just a taste of the kind of review we may choose to do while in a spiritual faint. It is by reading Scripture that we gain an understanding of God's character. Then the psalmist moves to the Lord's deeds, chief of which is the redemption of Israel. This theme will return at the end.
We are then presented with a marvelous poetic description of the Lord and his work in dividing the Red Sea to deliver Israel from the Egyptians: "The waters saw You, O God; /The waters saw You, they were in anguish; /The deeps also trembled. /The clouds poured out water; /The skies gave forth a sound; /Your arrows flashed here and there. /The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; /The lightnings lit up the world; /The earth trembled and shook. /Your way was in the sea /And Your paths in the mighty waters, /And Your footprints may not be known" (Psalm 77:16-19).
As part of his process of recovery the psalmist took up his pen and wrote a remarkable short poem on the glory of the Lord as he split the waters for Israel to escape the attack of the Egyptian army. There are details in this account which were not included in the historical record in the book of Exodus. Were these passed along by oral history or is the psalmist enshrining this miracle in traditional poetic images of the power and glory of God? I am not entirely sure, but this segment of the psalm produces a sense of awe in me. I need passages like this and I am sure the Lord knew that when he included it in the canon of Scripture.
The psalmist is clearly coming up off the bottom of his descent into fainting. You can sense that the energies of his life are becoming regenerated as he focuses on the Lord's great work. This is what you and I should do--worship, pray, shout, sing, and drink in God's glory in whatever way works. I love the hymn written by Robert Grant entitled O Worship the King for this reason: "O worship the King, all glorious above; Oh, gratefully sing His power and His love; Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days, Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise" (Hymns of the Christian Life, Christian Publications, 1978, p. 12). There are many such edifying songs beginning with the Psalms and proceeding right up to our time.
If we wait to feel worshipful before we enter his courts with praise we may never go. It is vital that we do the deeds of refreshment. If you are thirsty you must lift the glass of water to your lips. "O taste and see that the LORD is good; /How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!" (Psalm 34:8). We must choose to taste by faith, to open our eyes and see, even when our emotions have caused us to expect nothing to happen. There is also a great lesson in this poetic description of the miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea. No matter how dark it seems to us, no matter how impossible our situation or how much distress it may cause us, God will make a way for us. It may not be the way we are expecting or hoping, but he will not abandon his children.
The logic of the last line of the psalm now is revealed: "You led Your people like a flock /By the hand of Moses and Aaron" (Psalm 77:20). If we are faint like the psalmist and up against seemingly impossible circumstances, we can know that our Great Shepherd will lead us through them by the hand. This is the fact which predicts the future for every person who has trusted in Christ as his or her Lord and Savior.
I find myself inevitably drawn to the example of Elijah when he had collapsed under the stress of prophetic ministry. He had been speaking truth into the idolatrous Northern Kingdom of Israel which was ruled by Ahab and Jezebel. The true prophets of God had been slain and Ahab had appointed 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah. Elijah called the Baal worshipers out for a power encounter. He proposed they set up two altars, one to Baal and one to the God of Israel. Then the representatives of each god would implore their god to ignite their own sacrifices. Of course, the prophets of Baal made incantations and danced around their sacrifice to no effect. Elijah, to up the ante, had them pour water over and around the sacrifice to the true God. When the Lord incinerated the sacrifice from heaven including the water, the people knew who the real God is. In that state of mind Elijah had them slay the prophets of Baal.
But Jezebel was furious and determined to murder Elijah, so Elijah ran from Mt. Carmel down to Beersheba in the south. He left his servant in the town and 1 Kings 19:4 tells what happened next: "But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, 'It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers'" (1 Kings 19:4). Like the psalmist, Elijah fainted. Notice that Elijah crashed even while he was at the height of power in his ministry.
I have heard preachers and commentators berate Elijah for this fainting spell. Their theory is that no minister of the Lord, especially a minister of Christ who has the Holy Spirit, should ever faint like this. But I can see no word of condemnation or chastisement from the Lord in this passage. On the contrary, the Lord sent an angel to speak to him and to give him food and water. Then Elijah ran further south to Mt. Horeb on the Sinai where he holed up in a cave.
There the Lord listened to his complaint about his situation. Instead of berating him, the Lord guided him back into effective ministry in a world which the Lord was changing by his mighty hand. Instead of the hopeless scenario, Elijah would anoint new kings over Aram and Israel. The Lord would also provide someone to take Elijah's place in ministry, Elisha. God would discipline the idolatrous members of the house of Israel, but he would preserve 7,000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal.
So you are not alone when you face your moment of fainting. No one knows what future you face, but the Lord will be there to guide you by the hand. Do not abandon in the darkness what you know to be true in the light. Keep doing the deeds which bring spiritual refreshment even when they do not seem to be working. And wait, heart in your hand, for the Lord to work. If you have not yet entered a relationship with the God who works wonders for his people, do it today.
[clip from The Ten Commandments (1956), disc 2, begin chapter 13, 1:03:36 to 1:08:32]